League: Cleary looking to future

Ivan Cleary says his desire to coach the New Zealand Warriors is as strong as ever despite the prospect of his team starting the National Rugby League (NRL) season a distant last.

The Warriors have been fined A$430,000 ($480,984) and, if an appeal to the NRL is unsuccessful, will begin their new campaign four points behind their rivals as punishment for salary cap breaches in 2004 and 2005.

Asked if he would have taken the job late last year if he had known the Warriors would be conceding so much ground even before a ball was kicked, Cleary replied: "Absolutely. Yep. Can't wait."

He said he always knew there would be hard times as a first-grade coach, so "may as well start early".

The challenge for the Warriors now was to put off-field distractions behind them.

"What's happened has happened, there's nothing we can do about it," Cleary said.

"All I can do is concentrate on my job and that's getting a football team ready. The players will be concentrating on their jobs as well."

With a four-point handicap, the Warriors are likely to have to win 14 of their 24 games to make the top-eight playoffs.

Cleary said that target wasn't out of reach but would bring into play the old cliche of not looking too far ahead and concentrating on one game at a time.

From a travel point of view, the Warriors have a favourable start to their schedule, which begins at home against Melbourne on March 12.

Their next two fixtures are also in New Zealand -- against Parramatta in Hamilton and champions Wests Tigers in Christchurch -- although playing "away" games on this side of the Tasman hasn't been an advantage in the past.

"It's an interesting one, because we haven't won out of Auckland yet," he said.

"It's a real challenge and something we're very keen to put right."

Football manager John Hart said the Warriors would make submissions to the NRL against the points reduction, which the club argued made their sentence too severe.

Hart said the Warriors were committed to meeting the A$3.36 million salary cap for the coming season.

The loss of points for a competition that hadn't yet started meant they were having to pay for something that happened in the past.

Hart also said the contracts of the players were not at issue and no blame could be attached to them.

Instead, the club had to shoulder responsibility for what had happened.

"The players have entered into contracts and arrangement with the club and could assume that there were no salary cap issues," he said.

"We are very clear on that. This is not an issue for the players. It is the club that has to take total responsibility for any salary cap breaches."

Hart said management was working on the options as it looked to ensure that the Warriors were within the cap when the new season began.

There was a range of possibilities but the bottom line was that the Warriors would be at Ericsson Stadium for their round-one match against the Storm.

- NZPA